In addition to pilots on leaves, one more thing that makes furloughs much more difficult at SWA is the way our system works. Greed. SWA pilots fly MUCH more than our counterparts at other airlines in good times and bad. We fly an average of roughly 20% over guarantee. If a furlough did happen and everybody did stop picking up all company open time, we’d immediately be so understaffed that furloughs would need to be recalled. I know this is a stretch but I hope all pilots would comply.

I was initially on board with helping the company by fixing inefficiencies to save money. SWAPA’s most recent offer is respectable but the company’s tactics have me worried that they are doing far more harm than good for our future....all over 0.5B system wide. To put that into perspective we have been granted 2.3B through PSP plus sold 2B of stock. 4.3B dollars of non debt......we are at roughly 3B of losses this year so far. Although we’ve taken on debt our balance sheet shows a net positive cash position of 3-4B. American is NEGATIVE 30B! Are we really willing to furlough and put ourselves in a position that doesn’t allow us to attack and seize opportunities next year? I hope not.